Anascorp

Just wanted to post a quick link to an article on the antivenin that Jared received at the hospital that totally eliminated all symptoms he was experiencing of the scorpion poison. The antivenin is called anascorp and it manufactured in Mexico. They have used it on literally millions of children in Mexico with minimal side effects. The life threatening reactions to a scorpion sting that used to take days of care in a pediatric ICU to treat is now being cured in a matter of hours.

Here are the hospitals in the Phoenix area with this drug:

Banner Baywood - Mesa
Banner Thunderbird - Glendale
Chandler Regional - Chandler
John C. Lincoln - Phoenix (this is where we went - PTL!)
Maricopa Medical Center - Phoenix
Mercy Gilbert - Gilbert
Phoenix Children's Hospital - Phoenix
Scottsdale Healthcare - Scottsdale

I pray you never have to go through what we did, but if you do have a member of your family have a severe reaction to a scorpion bite you WANT this treatment and to be at one of these hospitals above that offers it. ANASCORP - remember it. Anascorp is not yet FDA approved (which is just wrong if you ask me), but hopefully will be FDA approved by fall and be in all Arizona hospitals by next summer when scorpion season is in full swing again.

Each year, some 8,000 Arizonans are stung by bark scorpions, the most dangerous kind of scorpion. Most adults recover without medical treatment, but around 200 cases, almost all of them children, require hospitalization. If you suspect a scorpion sting, call Banner Poison Control Center Hotline at 1-800-222-1222 immediately.

Most people just have a stinging burning sensation at the site, but if you are one of the +/- 200 to develop severe systemic neurotoxic symptoms of a bark scorpion bite (the most dangerous and also the most common scorpion in Arizona), your symptoms could include:

• wildly flailing arms and legs
• severe pain and swelling at the site of the sting
• numbness or tingling of extremities or face
• frothing at the mouth
• respiratory difficulties and/or trouble breathing.
• muscle twitching
• convulsions or uncontrolled, jerky body movements
• rapid, uncontrollable eye twitching,
• roving eye movements or blurred vision
• hyperactivity

"In effect, what happens with the venom, it locks every nerve in the 'on' position, so the nerves that go to muscles send signals that say 'twitch,' and the nerves that go to glands say 'sweat,' 'drool,' 'pee,' 'cry,'" said Dr. Boyer in a Reuters news article. Dr. Boyer serves as director of the Venom Immunochemistry, Pharmacology and Emergency Response (VIPER) Institute at the UA College of Medicine.

We never did find the scorpion, but we knew that was what it was by the symptoms Jared experienced.

Praise God for modern medicine.

Praise God for Dr. Boyer in Tucson who has spearheaded the study to get Anascorp FDA approved and eventually into ever Emergency Room in Arizona.